More baby boomers feather retirement nests with seasonal, travel jobs

Leanne Robinson, right, onboard a boat in Bora Bora, gathering knowledge in hopes of leading a Road Scholar trip there. Baby boomers are finding enjoyable ways to stretch their nest eggs by taking part-time or seasonal jobs at resorts, national parks and museums. (THE NEW YORK TIMES)

When Leanne Robinson saw an ad asking, “Why not get paid to travel?” she had no good answer. Why not?

That was 20 years ago. She enrolled in a tour director course offered by a San Francisco vocational school and, having recently turned 70, has travelled to places as varied as Nova Scotia and Southeast Asia. But instead of paying for her trips out of her own pocket, she is paid by someone else to take them.

Robinson, who has worked for a succession of tour companies, is now a group leader for Road Scholar, formerly Elderhostel. She shepherds travellers to exotic locales, taking responsibility for passengers and such details as luggage, lost items and, at times, medical issues. And in so doing she has become a trendsetter for her generation.

“It’s a pretty nice working environment,” she said.

As baby boomers redefine retirement and puzzle about how to stretch their nest eggs, they are negotiating the boundaries between work and leisure. In a 2013 study conducted by Merrill Lynch and the consulting firm Age Wave, 70 per cent of pre-retirees said they wanted to work after retirement but most were “seeking flexible work arrangements such as working part time or alternating between periods of work and time off.” As a result, some are choosing jobs in tourism and hospitality.

Experts acknowledge the trend and predict it is likely to grow. “It’s a reasonably recent phenomenon,” said Stephen Jennings, a principal at Deloitte Travel, Hospitality & Leisure. “You’ve got the economic tumult of the recession and the slow pace of recovery sitting on top of a demographic bubble that’s feeling a little less wealthy than in 2007.” He added, “There is matching up of baby boomers with flexibility with leisure businesses that have struggled with complicated schedules.”

Tour companies, cruise lines, ski resorts, museums, the National Park Service and its concessions have temporary and seasonal job openings. The Commercial Services Program of the National Park Service has contracts with 500 concessionaires, estimating that they employ more than 25,000 workers during the peak season.

Among the most visible concessionaires are Aramark, in Philadelphia (which manages operations at Mesa Verde National Park, Gettysburg National Military Park and the U.S. Mints in Denver and Philadelphia, among others); Xanterra Parks & Resorts, in the Denver area (which provides lodging in Yellowstone and at the Grand Canyon, among other parks and resorts); and Delaware North Cos., in Buffalo, New York (which operates the Plaza Hotel in New York and the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, among other places).

These companies are eyeing a potentially lucrative travel market for those older than 50. “Baby boomers responded to the recession as savings and home values suffered by decreasing their travel expenditures, and generally continue to be cautious, but their travel is now recovering,” Bjorn Hanson, divisional dean of the Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management at New York University, wrote in an email. A study in December conducted by Homewood Suites by Hilton tracked 12,000 AARP members, 80 percent of whom averaged $3,000 on vacations annually.

Betsy O’Rourke, vice president for sales and marketing at Xanterra, says her company frequently turns to older workers to provide services.

“June, July and August was the summer season, which now extends from May to October. There’s not a traditional college student that can work that schedule,” said Patty Ceglio, seasonal human resources specialist at CoolWorks.com, a website based outside Yellowstone National Park that specializes in outdoor and environmental jobs. Listings are up 30 per cent this year.

A section of the site designated “Older and Bolder” focuses on older workers. David Freireich, a spokesman for Aramark, which advertises on the site, estimates that retirees make up 25 to 30 percent of the seasonal applicant pool for jobs in areas like retail sales and front desk and office staff. “They are seasoned in the workforce, customer service-oriented and very knowledgeable,” he wrote in an email.

Embarking on seasonal or temporary employment can be uncertain. Pay may start at minimum wage, although discounted room and board or other perks may be offered. Still, those who choose the lifestyle and its compromises say the work is satisfying.

Bill Whetstone, 65, was an information technology executive for a medical products company in Warwick, Rhode Island, until 2005. He was at a recreational vehicle show in Arizona in 2009 when he had a chance encounter with a district manager of the nonprofit Yellowstone Association, which sponsors education and research programs at the park. After an interview, he was offered seasonal employment as a sales associate in the bookstore at the Old Faithful Visitor Education Center.

Two years ago he became the full-time district manager of that bookstore and three satellite stores. A staff of 26 shrinks to three or four during the offseason. Between seasons, he and his wife, who also sells books, travel or visit family.

They live in a recreational vehicle near the visitor centre. Whether a national park provides housing, which may be dormitory-style for concession employees, is determined for each park based on housing availability, the concession’s size and the distance of the park from communities where housing is available.

In his free time, Whetstone says he hikes, fishes and practices the dobro, a type of steel guitar. He frequently socializes with other employees over potluck suppers and campfires. “We call it summer camp,” he said.

“People don’t really need to replace 100 per cent of their income on the glide path to full retirement,” said Martha Deevy, a senior research scholar and director at the Stanford Center on Longevity. “What they want is different from what they wanted when they were raising families and building assets.”

Steven Ekstedt, 57, is working for Xanterra as a waiter at the Grand Canyon this season. He has worked in a different national park each of the past four summers. Ekstedt, a former chief financial officer of Accuchex, a payroll management company in Novato, California, said, “I don’t want to go back to a career working behind a desk five days a week.” He added, “Dealing with people all over the country and the world and being able to help is great fun.”

Ahead of his travels, he sold his condominium in suburban San Francisco and purchased a 32-foot recreational vehicle. He pays $100 a month for his parking space and utilities at the Grand Canyon; the cost is deducted from his paycheck.

To keep busy and to avoid dipping into his savings during the offseason and between jobs, he said he took a retail job one holiday season and also returned briefly to his former employer.

But experts differ on their views of seasonal work. “The part-time hours are flexible from an employer’s perspective, not an employee’s,” said Norman P. Stein, a law professor at Drexel University in Philadelphia.

And while there may be an opportunity cost of a shift from full- to part-time employment, Nicole Maestas, senior economist at the RAND Corp., said lower-paying jobs that offer other benefits could be more appealing.

For Mary Ann Crotty, 71, those benefits include flexible scheduling and access to cultural events. As part of an Art Institute of Chicago program for temporary employees, Crotty assists with office duties and special projects.

While many colleagues have backgrounds in art history, Crotty, who also owns an antiques business, has experience in database conversions and accounting. “They’ve given me a lot of freedom and a lot of responsibility,” she said. The pay range for the position is $13 to $17 an hour. She works no more than 30 hours a week.

She has latitude to schedule a month away every year.

Although she’s been a temporary worker for nearly a decade, Crotty plans to continue. Last year the museum renewed her badge for five years.